Dissolution of the Monasteries

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Reasons for Dissolution: Visitations and Corruption

Between 1536 and 1540, 800 abbeys were closed.

Cromwell's visitations

In 1535 Cromwell was ordered to send a commission of 6 officials to inspect the monasteries.
These visits were called the "visitations".

Findings of the visitations

The visitations found that:
- Hundreds of monks were not celibate, either having a mistress or having affairs with young boys.
- Some nuns had even had children.
- One monastery in Yorkshire was even accused of working with pirates!

Outcome of the visitations

The results of the visitations were recorded in the Compendium Compertorum. However, these results were not very reliable.
Inspections were too fast to be thorough, commissioners often bullied monks and nuns while questioning them, evidence was focused on the negatives and was exaggerated, or even made up.

Outcomes cont.

Out of the 181 claims of homosexual practices, only 12 were proved to be true.
The job of the commissioners was to find evidence that would close down the monasteries, so this is what they did.

Public response to the visitations

Most abbeys were supported by the public.
- If the visitations results were true, people would not support them.
- Some monasteries may have been corrupt, but most were actually very good.
- One example gave 22% of its income to charity.

Reasons for Dissolution

Alongside the corruption of the Church, the dissolution of the monasteries was driven by the following factors:

Protestant ideas

Protestants believed that monasteries were useless.
Their main role was to pray for the souls of the dead to get them into heaven, but Protestants believed you could only get into heaven by praying to God yourself.

Motivations

Cromwell was certainly of this belief, and he was the main driving force behind the dissolution.
However, Henry wasn’t Protestant, so this is unlikely to be his main reason for the dissolution.
He even founded two new abbeys in 1537 to pray for the souls of Jane Seymour and their heirs.

Loyalty

Henry didn’t trust the loyalty of the monasteries.
He believed they were still loyal to the Pope in Rome rather than him, despite the Act of Supremacy, and some monks had shown resistance to his break from Rome.

Reality

In reality, only 18 monks were executed for refusing to take the Oath of Succession, proving that most monks and nuns were loyal to Henry.

Money

Henry VIII commissioned the Valour Ecclesiasticus which surveyed the monasteries and found that they owned one-third of English land and earned £160,000 a year in total.
- This was three times as much as Henry’s crown lands.

Funding

Henry needed to defend England from possible Catholic invasion after the Break from Rome.
He couldn’t rely on parliament to raise this money from tax, as he had seen with the Suffolk rebellion in 1525 after the Amicable Grant.
Henry could use the monasteries’ land to reward or bribe the nobility for their support.

The Dissolution of Monasteries

The dissolution of monasteries was secured by the first and second acts, passed in 1536 and 1539 respectively.

First Act of Dissolution, 1536

The First Act of Dissolution closed 300 smaller monasteries with an income under £200 a year, due to Cromwell’s commissions.
It did allow for 67 ‘good’ monasteries to stay open.

Closing more monasteries

Henry’s need for money and the support of some monasteries for the Pilgrimage of Grace led him to start closing the rest of the monasteries in 1538.

Voluntary closure

Individual monasteries were inspected by Cromwell’s commissioners and encouraged to ‘voluntarily’ close and give their monasteries’ lands and wealth as a gift to Henry.
If they refused, the abbots were replaced with someone who would agree to close.

The Second Act of Dissolution, 1539

The Second Act of Dissolution confirmed these closures.
By 1540, there were no monasteries left.

1Henry VIII & Wolsey, 1509-1529

1.1Henry VIII & Wolsey, 1509-1529

1.1.1Henry VIII, Renaissance Prince

1.1.2The Rise of Wolsey

1.1.3Wolsey's Domestic Reforms

1.1.4Wolsey's Foreign Policy

1.1.5Evaluating Wolsey's Foreign Policy

1.1.6The Succession & Annulment

1.1.7Fall of Wolsey

1.1.8End of Topic Test - Henry VIII & Wolsey

1.1.9End of Topic Test - Henry VIII & Wolsey 2

2Henry VIII & Cromwell, 1529-1540

2.1Henry VIII & Cromwell, 1529-1540

2.1.1The Rise of Cromwell

2.1.2The King's Annulment

2.1.3Cromwell & the King's Marriages

2.1.4Cromwell & Government

2.1.5Cromwell & Parliament

2.1.6Fall of Cromwell

2.1.7End of Topic Test - Henry VIII & Cromewell

2.1.8End of Topic Test - Henry VIII & Cromwell 2

3The Reformation & its Impact, 1529-1540

3.1The Reformation & its Impact, 1529-1540

3.1.1The Break with Rome

3.1.2Opposition to the Reformation

3.1.3Impact of the Reformation

3.1.4Role of Religious Houses

3.1.5Dissolution of the Monasteries

3.1.6Impact of Dissolution

3.1.7The Pilgrimage of Grace

3.1.8Evaluating the Pilgrimage of Grace

3.1.9End of Topic Test - The Reformation

3.1.10End of Topic Test - The Reformation 2

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